I thought that creating a thread discussing modern dream research would be appropriate. Hopefully, it will spark some good debates. In this thread, I will answer common questions people have about dreams.

1- Do blind people dream?

Yes, and the amount of visual imagery in their dreams is dependent on the time they became blind. Blind dreams contain similar bizarre elements as visual dreams.

2- Does dreaming serve a purpose?

This is a controversial subject, but I believe Mark Solms' research may provide the answer to this question. Mark Solms has performed research on brain damaged patients who suddenly experience a loss of dreaming. This phenomenon is known as dream cessation. Individuals suffering from dream cessation report no ill effects from a loss of dreaming. Therefore, dreams might have no adaptive function, and are simply meaningless bi products of the evolution of sleep and consciousness.

3- Does time in a dream progress at the same rate as in waking reality?

Yes, Stephen LaBerge made subjects memorize predetermined eye movement signals to perform during REM sleep.Subjects estimated ten second intervals in their dreams using these eye movements. The study found that time progresses as the same rate in dreams as in waking reality.

4- Do animals dream?

Most likely they do. All animals, even amoebas, show sleep like states in which they become unresponsive to their environment. Cats, when a part of their brain was removed, acted out their dreams, appearing to chase imaginary mice. Mice have also been shown to dream, rehearsing activities such as running through a maze in their dreams.

5- Why do dreams feel so real?

Dreamed events have measurable effects on the body. For example. If a lucid dreamer holds his breath in a dream, his actual breathing rate decreases. Sleep paralysis prevents us from acting out our dreams, so when we perform a dream action, to our brains, we are performing the action.

If you have any comments or disagree with anything written, please respond. I am interested to hear the discussions this will generate.

LucidityMaster wrote:3- Does time in a dream progress at the same rate as in waking reality?

Yes, Stephen LaBerge made subjects memorize predetermined eye movement signals to perform during REM sleep.Subjects estimated ten second intervals in their dreams using these eye movements. The study found that time progresses as the same rate in dreams as in waking reality.

Oh another thing Im going to disagree with Stephen LaBerge about. If this was the case, it doesnt explain how someone can have a dream in which one goes throu living THREE DAYS worth of life stuff and for three days. Obviously to have such a dream the dream time must be going faster or one just wouldnt fit in all that stuff one did in that dream. (Ive had several very long time dreams re dream time, not common but they do happen).

Thou this probably was an astral experience, unless they are different? But anyway, I made friends with a being in a different world and spent 3 days with him, he took me to his place, showed me his favourite hang out places.. took me to meet his friends etc etc We had a lot of fun. I slept there for a couple of nights (2 nights, 3 days).

This is a controversial subject, but I believe Mark Solms' research may provide the answer to this question. Mark Solms has performed research on brain damaged patients who suddenly experience a loss of dreaming. This phenomenon is known as dream cessation. Individuals suffering from dream cessation report no ill effects from a loss of dreaming. Therefore, dreams might have no adaptive function, and are simply meaningless bi products of the evolution of sleep and consciousness.

Study on brain damaged people? Well one can theorize that if they could dream that maybe they could of recovered from their brain damage better!..........

Athletes some times go throu their sports moves etc in their dreams and its been said that it does possibly help them. In fact visualisation techniques and imagining winning etc are often used by world class athletes.

Dreams ie the subconciousness, also is known to help solve problems. Some of the worlds most famous inventions are here cause their creators dreamed of them!!! (this is a fact).

Last edited by taniaaust1 on 10 Sep 2014 07:11, edited 1 time in total.

Movies and plays will quickly switch from daytime to night, within the span of one hour.

We will accept that a full day has passed, even though only one hour had elapsed.

Therefore, it is possible to nave dreams that appear to last for days, due to the theatrical effects.

yeah but but even if you call it "theatrical effects" it proves the question wrong as one isnt "percieving time" to be moving the same rate as waking reality. My waking reality was only 8 hrs, my dream 3 days and that was based also on what I was doing in the dream, not just the sun rising and setting (the dream world I was in didnt have any technology as such so no clocks or watches). I did 3 days worth of stuff. All activities I took preceived amounts of time to do and it doesnt tally with reality.

We will accept that a full day has passed, even though only one hour had elapsed.

And no certainly not, if in my daily life a whole day went by in one hour! I would certainly realise something very weird has occurred. In fact one time many years ago I had an incident of missing hours and I certainly did notice it (it completely freaked me out).

Visualization techniques have been proven to help athletes improve their performance.

However, dreams themselves likely have no adaptive function

Yes, we have all heard the story of the famous benzene ring.

However, one can argue it was the scientists 'reflection' on his dream that lead to his breakthrough.

The same is true for other cases where subjects generated an idea from a dream. .

I myself have dreamed of two inventions and I can say I certainly had never thought of the ideas before nor was I even trying to invent something. I just woke up with the knowledge from a dream and it wasnt just getting "ideas" but I saw the whole thing and how to make it in my dreams. (this has happened to me twice). Actually 3 things, one of them thou when I afterwards researched what I'd dreamed, I found out it was already discovered and made. One of these inventions if I had money I'd market it.

Another thing dreams have been used for is to overcome fears. This is fact and there are people at this website who have used them for that. By overcoming fears, that can help one be more successful in certain areas of life.............

There is a list of how dreams have helped some people at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dreams (Ive also had prophetic dreams and saved someones life via one).

Last edited by taniaaust1 on 10 Sep 2014 07:44, edited 4 times in total.